Connect With Us:

Orlando Science Center Receives Highest National Recognition

The American Alliance of Museums Awards Accreditation

The Orlando Science Center has achieved subsequent accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the highest national recognition for a museum. Accreditation signifies excellence to the museum community, to governments, funders, outside agencies, and to the museum-going public.

Accreditation recognizes a museum’s commitment to excellence and professional standards of operation. This level of operation is achieved through an ongoing process of learning and improvement. To ensure that accredited museums maintain their level of professional performance, museums must complete a review every 10 years. AAM Accreditation brings national recognition to a museum for its commitment to excellence, accountability, high professional standards, and continued institutional improvement.

Accreditation is a very rigorous but highly rewarding process that examines all aspects of a museum’s operations. To earn accreditation a museum first must conduct a year of self-study, then undergo a site visit by a team of peer reviewers. AAM’s Accreditation Commission, an independent and autonomous body of museum professionals, consider the self-study and visiting committee report to determine whether a museum should receive accreditation. While the time to complete the process varies by museum, it generally takes as much as three years. The Orlando Science Center has been engaged in this latest accreditation review since 2006. It will begin the self-study process for subsequent accreditation in 2016.

Of the nation’s nearly 17,500 museums, about 775 are currently accredited. Orlando Science Center is one of only 47 museums accredited in Florida. Other local accredited museums include Orlando Museum of Art, the Orange County Regional History Center and the Cornell Fine Arts Museum.

The American Alliance of Museums has been bringing museums together since 1906, helping to develop standards and best practices, gathering and sharing knowledge, and providing advocacy on issues of concern to the entire museum community. With more than 15,000 individual, 3,000 institutional, and 300 corporate members, AAM is dedicated to ensuring that museums remain a vital part of the American landscape, connecting people with the greatest achievements of the human experience, past, present and future. For more information, visit www.aam-us.org.

Orlando Science Center Voted Best Museum for Both Little Kids and Big Kids

Orlando Science Center was selected for two awards as Orlando's 2008 Parents' Pick for Best Museum for both Little Kids and for Big Kids as part of Nickelodeon's ParentsConnect's First Annual Parents' Picks Awards. Nickelodeon's ParentsConnect, the online resource for parenting advice and community, asked parents to pick the best services in their local communities via the 2008 Parents' Picks Awards.

The ParentsConnect's First Annual Parents' Picks Awards identified the best family-oriented places and resources in 52 major U.S. cities. Categories included Best Kids' Museum, Best Toy Store, Best Playground/Park, Best Green Space, and many more. Users, real parents, voted for nominees online from May 19 to June 30, 2008. On July 15, 2008, the ParentsConnect.com site published the Parents' Picks winners.

All Parents' Picks businesses were nominated based on recommendations from ParentsConnect.com local city editors (transitioning from the Webby Award-winning GoCityKids.com site to PCLocal.com) who live and work in the cities they cover, in conjunction with ParentsConnect users' feedback. Users' votes and rankings ultimately determined which venues are selected as winners in their respective categories.

Thank you to everyone who voted for Orlando Science Center, we appreciate it.

PLAYGROUND Magazine has recognized Orlando Science Center as the "Fave Museum for Kids" in their Winter 2013 issue. With 80 percent of the vote, the Science Center was chosen by Central Florida residents as their favorite museum in the region.

In addition, readers voted the Science Center as top educational activity and best birthday location.

A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION FOR ORLANDO SCIENCE CENTER, A FLORIDA-BASED NONPROFIT CORPORATION (REGISTRATION NO. CH2342), MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE 1-800-HELP-FLA (435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE OR VISITING THEIR WEBSITE. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE.